"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect It's successful outcome." William James

Spartan Shape-Up, Day 272:

It's Tuesday, BlogLand... you know what that means... it's Sprint-WOD day!! *insert a long serious of groans and painful looks here*

Today, despite the fact that I dread it like crazy, every.single.week, promised to be a little less grueling; our group of Crazies for tonight's WOD would be 4 of us, total! And really, the more the merrier in these things. Clearly, if I am suffering, the more people that suffer with me, the less bad I feel? Or something to that effect?

We trotted over to the track to begin our Sprints. My Up-the-Hill buddy would be joining in on the action this week, by starting her short sprints, and my two more-experienced runner buddies would be excellent people for me to chase down in sprints (damn fast bitches.).
Round One: Away we went, feeling pretty good. My legs do really feel like they're catching on to this whole sprinting thing. I managed my best time to date: 39.89 seconds. Woot!

Round Two: After a little huffing and puffing, I felt pretty good still... and we took off for our second sprint. Half way through this one (just as we hit the ugly turn that marks the second 100 meters of our sprint), I remembered why I hate these so much. This was really hard to do. However, having runners running in the lanes next to me, as hard as they could, really propelled me on. A solid time: 41.83.

Round Three: is where the mental game comes in. After I come to a stop in round two, my body is pretty sure that it would really like to be done with this whole game. But yet, I go back for round three. Off we went. I pushed. I chased down the friend in front of me. I grunted with the effort. I hissed out a breath of discomfort and made it across the line: 44.21.

Round Four:... where I'm pretty sure I'm going to die. Thankfully, my run buddies were all very positive about this experience, and were ready to tackle on last sprint. Just 40 more seconds I told myself. I could do anything for 40 seconds. My body was not so sure... I was still huffing and puffing a bit from my last effort, and I find that by round four, I am just barely recovered enough (after a half-track walk) to tackle that last sprint. Fueled on a little friendly competition and the desire to be successfully done, we sprinted off.  I recognized that I didn't feel quite as horrid as I have in the past at the last sprint... but this was still sucking pretty bad. Keep running.
One of my friends was slightly ahead of me. I decided that to propel myself through the last 100m, I was going to catch her. ... or try. I ran just as much as my little legs could go... and I am happy to report I did gain some ground, but crossed the line just afterwards. My mini competition did earn me a "slow" time that I'm happy with, of: 45.30.

In order to celebrate the end of the hell-wod, we did a few giant tire flips for good measure (it's weird that the people I know now consider that "fun"). I would like to report that, although it was challenging, I can totally flip that big tire all by myself. RAWR. I may need to get over there and do some more tire flips and bleacher runs and stuff. Got to mix up the workouts and keep things fresh!

After that, it was home to refuel with some protein smoothies, and roll out the ouchies. Foam roller, why do you hurt so good?

That's pretty much the crazy for today... but I'm mulling over some thoughts for the next couple of days. Number 1, because I've been struggling so much with not losing any weight, under the strict suggestion of the GT, I took my measurements. I wanted to die doing that. But I did it. I wrote them down. Going to blog that soon, and own those numbers. Not quite there ... yet.

Also, I'm frustrated with food. I'm not losing weight (probably why I'm frustrated), and am bored with everything. I think I'm just annoyed with trying so hard and not seeing the continued results. I want a cheeseburger. Instead, I eat ground turkey. Or hummus. HMM.

With that, I'm leaving you for bed. I'm determined to get to crossfit in the morning, as we'll be finding our one rep max at thrusters. Might not be totally accurate for me, given the sprints and such... but who doesn't love some heavy lifting??